Tag Archives: The Eageles

Iconic 1970’s band The Doobie Brothers is heading out on their “The Summer of Living Dangerously” tour, co-headlining with Steely Dan; the band will be joining The Eagles in San Diego later this spring as well. They will be making a stop at the Fabulous Forum in Los Angeles on May 30, 2018.

The Doobie Brothers are an American band from Northern California whose musical style is influenced by blues, R&B, country, bluegrass and rock ‘n’ roll. Formed in 1969 by singer/songwriter/guitarist Tom Johnson and singer/songwriter/guitarist Patrick Simmons, the band released their debut album in 1971, and found major success a year later with their second album, Toulouse Street, in 1972.

John McFee, the longtime Doobie Brother guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, spoke with us about the upcoming show at the Los Angeles Forum, saying he is looking forward to the show. “It’s always great to be playing for bands like Steely Dan and the Eagles, we try to freshen up our show, we’re going to be changing our set list and playing some different things, touring this year.

“We try to do some different material than what we were doing from our previous tour. There’s going to be some surprises, some songs that fans have not heard in a while, or maybe ever,” he laughed, “live from us. We try to keep things interesting for the fans and for ourselves as well. It’s going great. It’s been really fun, actually. We like touring, we like to play in front of an audience and do our music so it’s all good.”

But don’t expect ex-Doobie singer/keyboardist Michael McDonald to turn up as a surprise guest – but if he did show up it would be a musical moment in history featuring both present and past singers on the same stage.

We asked McFee about that possibility and he said, “I hope so . . . as far as I know nothing is planned. It’s always great when Michael joins us, I love it. You know Michael is such a talent, and he’s a really great guy, he’s a good person. That would be great and very appropriate.”

The Doobie Brothers are currently writing and recording new music for an album while on tour in 2018, as John McFee revealed. “It’s still in the works, it’s still coming along, we have four tracks so far, we are trying to get things going, but we’re getting ready for touring now. We will be getting back to that. It’s definitely our intention to get some new music down and to keep the juices flowing and have some fun.”

The Doobie Brothers have sold over 48 million albums, and have won 4 Grammy Awards, with seven multi-platinum, six Platinum and 11 Gold albums. They released a 10-CD Boxed Set, “The Doobie Brothers: The Warner Bros. Years” on Rhino, featuring albums from 1971-1983, including more than 110 songs. “Southbound,” their most recent album, was a Country music collaboration featuring top country artists such as Blake Shelton, the Zac Brown Band, and Toby Keith and was released on Sony Music Nashville.

“The Doobies have had such a unique run of being able to combine different styles of music, have people actually like the lyrics and be experimental but popular and they are still going, you know?” McFee said. “Pat [Simmons] and Tom [Johnston] are hanging in there, and we have these other guys that are still playing with us, and Billy [Payne] is able to come back with us, it feels really good for us right now moving forward. There is a lot of energy, we just don’t know any better, we like what we do. Anytime you play, the assignment is to go out and do your best, to give the best possible performance. Hopefully people will enjoy us, or them, or me, and that’s what its all about. That’s the goal every night. So everywhere is my favorite place [to play)].”

McFee is also wrapping up his own band’s album, called “Clover.”

“The album is finished, I’m finishing up the packaging and everything. It should be available very soon because it’s basically done. Within the next month or so. The problem is they only put 24 hours in a day!” he chuckled.

McFee grew up in a household where musical instruments were the norm and he gravitated towards them and is a self-taught musician.

“I liked music so much, I thought, ‘I will try that instrument.’ I was inspired a lot when I was younger – like Joe Matthias in particular – like, wow, he picked up the xylophone, and he was an incredible guitar player, and then he picked up the banjo. He played all these different instruments. He inspired me a lot as well people like the Buckaroos, people that played more than one instrument.”

Asked what advice he has for inspiring musicians, he replied:

“My advice to young people is practice, just practice. I don’t know if I’m explaining things well, partly because I am totally self-taught. It’s my own system, my own way of working things. I have some difficulty translating, and making it accessible to others. My advice to young people is practice, just practice. That’s the only real way that anybody has ever gotten any good, only if they play a lot.”

The Doobie Brothers are also playing benefit charity concert in October at the Mayan in Los Angeles. They also do an event if Canada where kids can check out instruments like they would library books.

“We do a concert for that event, and even donated instruments as well. I think it’s important for young people to have that opportunity, I think music is good for people,” McFee explained. “It’s encouraging to see the world, with people actually playing instruments and really singing, since there is a certain amount of artificiality about contemporary, popular music – if you want to call it that. So many records are made by people that can’t sing, write or play instruments. And yet they have musical careers. And at the same time there are people that are still trying, that are really good musicians and are learning to play and write and sing. The things that I consider to be what constitutes real music. It’s encouraging, there is still hope.”